An Open Letter to Pastors From the Church Media Team – We’re Frustrated

March 13, 2017

3 minute read

Dear Pastor, the church media team is frustrated with you.

We understand that you are very busy and that there are other matters that require your attention, but…

The truth is, we feel that you are not giving the church media the attention it deserves.

There are so many amazing opportunities available right now, and you are not taking advantage of them.

We noticed that only two of your daily Facebook posts went up last week. We understand that hospital visits and counseling appointments are necessary, but we really don’t want our Facebook engagement to drop.

It has been three weeks since we set up your Snapchat account, and you still haven’t sent one Snap. We feel that you could be the Snapchat king if you weren’t so rigid with the amount of time you put into your sermon preparation!

The internet needs to hear from you, but you seem to be preoccupied with people and their problems. How are we going to reach the world if we can’t even connect with our Instagram audience?

The welcome video shoot has been rescheduled twice now. We know the second time was due to your kids’ sports schedule, and it might be a good time to reevaluate some of your priorities.

Also, are you aware of all the tech gear that our church could benefit from if the church could make some tweaks to the budget? We saw that the benevolence fund was doubled this year, but our A/V budget was only allotted a meager 20% increase.

Our video camera is almost a year old and needs to be replaced immediately. If we had an 8k RED Weapon cinematic video camera we might be able to finish that feature Christian film we started three years ago or at least take our announcement videos up a couple notches!

Speaking of video, we’re really trying to enhance the viewer experience during the Sunday morning live stream. We’re emailing you a list of wardrobe suggestions that we feel would resonate with our online audience. (Please make special note of the ‘skinny jeans’ section, and refer to Judah Smith’s Facebook page for inspiration.)

To be honest we’re feeling a little undervalued. We often put in long hours and late nights, but on Sunday most of the church rushes out the back door without recognizing us or saying thank you. How would you feel if the only time you were noticed or people wanted to talk to you is when things go wrong?

We’re trying to be patient in most of these areas, but the struggle is real. We feel like we could really move the church forward if we just had a little more cooperation and mutual understanding. Your attention in these matters would be much appreciated!

Sincerely, The Church Media Team

P.S. – We don’t feel like we are paid enough. Think about all of the different hats we have to wear! Sound guy, videographer, graphic designer and on top of that we’re expected to be ‘experts’ in all of these areas. Have you ever worked a job like that? It’s exhausting.

Thank you, Pastors…

for being willing to care about lights, sound, and social media, even though there are a hundred more important things you deal with every week. Thank you for pouring into people and loving them with the heart of Jesus.

Thank you, media teams…

for being patient with your pastors as they navigate the incredible challenges of church ministry. Thanks for taking the tools you’ve been given and leveraging them for the kingdom of God!

2 comments

Is this meant to be funny? Ugh. As a creative director who regularly volunteers in support of local ministries, this rubs me the wrong way big time. Don’t hide behind humor to complain–leave that to The Babylon Bee. I came to this site looking for resources and inspiration. I’m thinking I’ll look somewhere else.

Hey, Tony! First off thanks for being a committed volunteer at your local church we need more people like you. To explain the article, yes it is satire and there is an underlying thought of “Give your church pastoral/elder some patience and grace there might be other problems they are dealing with beyond your purview.” My guess is you would understand and even agree with the statement above but maybe not have written it in an article like we did. (Honestly, if we had written it like a typical article it would have maybe got 500 views vs. the 5,000+ it actually got)

I don’t think the Babylon Bee gets to have all of the fun. We want to make this site resource packed as well as add in some great humor. And we understand humor is a little dangerous because someone is a probably going to end up offended.

Thank you for taking the time to read the article and comment. We have thick skin here and we welcome critical feedback! And your comments help shape how we put out new content!